High and mighty: Colorado

The people in Colorado are a little different from other Americans. It could be all the sunshine they say they get. It could be the thin air. Either way, they are, they say, statistically the healthiest folk in the union. They are also strangely obsessed with elevation.

The state's many small mountain towns all have signs informing visitors of their altitude and population - in that order. Ask a Coloradan the population of their town and they'll probably get it to within a few thousand or even a few hundred, but ask them the elevation and their answer will be within a few feet.

Colorado was at one point part of the American frontier, the westward expansion that became known as the Wild West. The state remains a place where cowboys meet trustafarians (the progeny of wealthy parents who lounge around the ski towns smoking - legally, now - marijuana) and the Rocky Mountains reach their pinnacle, both metaphorically and literally.

If you stand at the crossroads in the centre of Montrose (5,806 feet; population 19,132 and named after Sir Walter Scott's novel A Legend of Montrose) and face southeast, you will see that this Anytown USA, where the Salvation Army thrift store coexists with a Gun Depot and where John Wayne, looking down from a mural, keeps a rifle trained on the citizens year-round, is surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery in the whole country.

In the winter, a stunning veil of snow covers the surrounding mountains but, when the ice melts and the columbines bloom, this part of Colorado - in fact, the whole state - is arguably even more beautiful.

The 58 14ers, mountain peaks that stand more than 14,000 feet high, are the pride of Colorado. There are also about 600 13ers. Furthermore, Colorado has 42 state parks, 10 national parks and monuments, 13 national forests and grasslands and, as amazing as it sounds for a landlocked state, the tallest sand dunes in North America.